TheStar March 24 VETERAN Wong Choong Hann took a swipe at the organisers for a cramped schedule on a day when Malaysian players advanced to the quarter-finals in all five individual events of the badminton competition at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre yesterday. Choong Hann produced a sluggish performance to reach the men’s singles quarter-finals, beating Canadian Andrew Dabaka 21-14, 21-16. Partnering Choong Tan Fook, he also made it to the men’s doubles quarter-finals. Both the quarter-final and semi-final matches will be played today. “I just do not understand why they scheduled the quarter-final and semi-final matches on the same day. They have plenty of time to have one round a day,” said Choong Hann. “They have already limited the number of entries (five men and five women in each team) for the Games and they knew very well that some of us will be playing in two events. “By having two rounds a day, they will be stretching the players’ ability. They will not get quality performances from the players. This is not the way to do it.” Despite the hectic time schedule ahead, Choong Hann has vowed to give his best. He will take on Singaporean Kendrick Lee for a place in the men’s singles semi-finals and in the doubles, the opponents are Jonathan Neil Morgan-James Alexander Phillips of Wales. “It is a crucial stage for all of the players. I have not played against Kendrick before. The youngster has grown into a better player and I will have to be wary of him,” said Choong Hann, who was the gold medallist in the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur. “If I beat the Singaporean, I may face India’s Chetan Anand. The Indians are doing quite well here and it will not be easy to beat them. But my hope is to reach the final.” If he reaches the final, Choong Hann is set to take on world number two and teammate Lee Chong Wei. Yesterday, Chong Wei scored an easy 21-6, 21-4 win over Philippe Bourret of Canada in the third round. In the quarter-finals, he will play against India’s Anup Sridhar, who upset fifth seed Geoffrey Bellingham of New Zealand 21-10, 21-10. In the doubles, Choong Hann hopes to reach the final. “We should clear the quarter-final hurdle for a match against the English pair (Anthony Clark-Robert Blair). This will be crucial for us. Hopefully, it can be an all-Malaysian final,” he added. Top seeds Chan Chong Ming-Koo Kien Keat have a tricky match against the scratch Singapore combination of Ronald Susilo-Hendra Saputra today.
WCH looked so tired when he played Kendrick Lee of Singapore in the QF. I thought he was not going to pull through - playing potentially 3 more games that same day. His experience showed against Lee. He conserved energy and played at the same pace as Lee, drawing level as he went along. Only at 17-17 he speeded up and snached both games. Lee looked a bit disheartent to say the least. Never the less he pulled through and much praise should be given to him. After playing so many matches for team gold, he was still able to reach 2 finals (MS and MD). Admittingly, under the old 15 points system he might not have been able to achieve this feat. Congrats WCH! Edit: sorry ants I thought we should change this thread into a "WCH praise thread" rather than a flame-the-organisers thread.
Agree agree agree!!! Me support WOng CHoong Hann as well, hope he can win in both finals!!! Wong CHoong Hann boleh boleh boleh!
So proud of him Choon Hann has done his part advancing to final on both events that he participated. However, to be realistic, I don't think he stand any chance to beat Lee Chong Wei in MSF, however, upsetting Chan/Koo in MDf partnering with Choong is quite likely. Regardless, Malaysia is proud with Choon Hann.
I don't see the problem in playing two rounds in a day. They do iit at most tournaments. The problem is that it is later on in the tournament (QF and SF) instead of the early rounds. Kudos to WCh reaching two finals. He looked pretty good in the mixed, just let down by partner, and unsure of what partner is going to do.
